Christmas Tree Incident
by AnimationNut
Summary: The tree lighting ceremony is a tradition in Milo's neighbourhood, and everyone turns out for it. Everyone except for Milo and his father, who don't want Murphy's Law to ruin the event. Dakota and Cavendish, intrigued by what could have gone so wrong to warrant self-banishment from the holiday tradition, offer to take Milo back in time to see it for themselves. Yeah, it was bad.


**I do not own Milo Murphy's Law.**

* * *

 **Christmas Tree Incident**

"Where are all these people going?"

Dakota lifted his head from his magazine to glance out the window, where swarms of people of all ages where spilling down the sidewalk and heading seemingly to the same destination. Cavendish inched their vehicle along, the traffic coming to a near stand-still to accommodate the flow of pedestrians.

"Dunno. Maybe there's a sale on somewhere. We should check it out."

"Most certainly not," scoffed Cavendish. "I don't want to be anywhere near that mob. Holiday crowds are horrendous."

"Yeah, that's part of the fun. Let's see what's goin' on."

"Oh, very well," replied Cavendish, who couldn't help but be curious himself. He managed to find a parking spot on the side of the road and pulled over. The pair of time travelers stood on the snowy curb and Cavendish stopped a passing woman. "Excuse me ma'am, could you please tell us where all of you are heading?"

"Oh, it's the Christmas Tree Light-Up Ceremony," she replied cheerfully. "Pretty much the whole town turns up for it!"

"Thank you very much." Cavendish turned to Dakota and said, "Really, all this fuss for a tree lighting ceremony."

"Ah, don't be a Scrooge. We should go, it'll be fun."

"We have work to do," said Cavendish pointedly.

Dakota raised a brow. "What, cleaning Renaissance-era toilets?"

"The pistachios! We have to make sure the pistachios go extinct if we want to avoid a future of plant monsters!"

"Oh, that. I'm sure there are pistachios being sold at this thing. We can step on 'em."

"Well...I suppose we could take a look."

" _Look out!"_

Cavendish and Dakota turned their heads to see the bulb from the streetlight across the way shattering against the road, sending glass spraying in various directions. Dakota grinned. "Hey, Murphy's here too!"

As everyone ran away from the scene, Dakota and Cavendish walked towards it. Milo was sitting on the metal bench, watching the people file by with a smile. The smile brightened when he caught sight of the two men coming to see him.

"Hey Dakota! Hey Cavendish!"

"Hello Murphy," greeted Cavendish.

"Hey Milo, what are you sittin' around here for?" asked Dakota. "Apparently there's a big shindig happening."

"Yeah, my neighbourhood's tree lighting ceremony," said Milo. "It's really pretty. At least that's what I've seen from the pictures."

"You mean you've never seen it for yourself?" asked Cavendish in confusion. "But you live here."

"Well, I have seen it once, when I was little," amended Milo. "But it didn't go so well. The tree caught fire and got destroyed and everyone was really upset. I haven't been back since."

Milo turned to glance after the crowds of people, a hint of wistfulness in his eyes. Dakota frowned. "Were you barred or somethin'?"

"Nah, nothing like that. My parents decided it might be best until I was older before we tried again, but I thought it would be better if I didn't. A lot of people look forward to it and I didn't want to ruin it for them."

"You cannot help Murphy's Law," said Cavendish. "Really, the incident could not have been that bad."

"Why don't we see for ourselves?" Dakota jerked his thumb towards their time vehicle across the street. "What do you say, kid?"

"Sure!" Milo sprang up eagerly from the bench. "My family always says it was a spectacular disaster, but all I remember is a fiery blaze."

Cavendish sent Dakota a glare. "Are you mad? Having two Milo Murphys in one place will most likely affect how the event occurs."

"We'll be fine," dismissed Dakota. "We had two Murphys in one place before and all that happened was that you got hit with a peach."

"Where the devil did that peach come from?" muttered Cavendish, mostly to himself.

"Anyway, I got the keys." Swinging them on his finger, Dakota started across the street. "Let's go."

"Wait a moment!" Patting his pockets frantically, Cavendish demanded, "How did you get those?" When Dakota only sent him a smirk in response, he muttered, "Insufferable."

...

 _December 12th, Eight Years Ago_

Milo pressed his face against the backseat window, observing the surroundings of his town from his childhood. "Hey, I remember that statue!" he exclaimed. "Dad crashed into it a few summers ago. Er, a few summers _after_ this, anyway."

Dakota parked the car and they all filed outside. "We need to find somewhere to observe the incident, somewhere that's not part of the crowd," mused Cavendish.

"We can go to the roof of town hall," suggested Milo. "The tree is right in front of the building."

The trio took the back way to get to town hall in order to avoid the main crowds. They climbed the ladder attached to the back of the building to get to the roof. Milo was the last one up and as he neared the top the screws securing the top of the ladder to the building suddenly snapped out of place, causing the ladder to tip backwards.

"Whoa!"

"I gotcha kid!" Dakota grabbed hold of Milo's arm and hoisted him up to the roof. "There ya go."

"Thanks!" Milo glanced out into the crowd, spotting his sister and mother near the front. "Hey, there I am!"

Dakota followed Milo's gesturing finger, which indicated a tiny six-year-old Milo perched on his mother's shoulders. "Aw, you were cute. What happened?" he teased, pinching Milo's cheeks.

"Same thing that happened to you-old age," joked Milo, batting away Dakota's hand.

"Ouch. Way to hit me where it hurts."

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen to our annual tree lighting ceremony!"

The mayor's voice boomed across town square, amplified by the microphone. "It's starting," said Milo in a hushed voice.

"Why are you whispering?" asked Cavendish in bemusement. "They can't hear you."

"First I want to thank our hard-working committee for finding yet another perfect tree and gathering all these beautiful lights. Without them this tradition of ours wouldn't be possible!" The mayor paused so he would not speak over the audience's appreciative clapping. "And I want to thank you all for coming out to help celebrate the holidays as a community. Your support and spirit is appreciated. Boys, let there be light!"

The switch was flipped and the towering pine tree erupted into blue and white lights. The crowd _ooed_ and _aahed_ as the soft glow washed over them, reflecting off of storefront windows. They twinkled on the branches, glittering against the silver and blue bulbs dangling from the tips. The star on top shone a brilliant white, which could be seen from blocks away.

Dakota idly scratched at his chin, observing the Christmas tree. "It's nice and all, but everyone really makes a big deal about this?"

"It's hardly worth the excitement," said Cavendish with a scoff. "It looks like any other Christmas tree."

The microphone the mayor was holding started to spark and hiss. He shouted and tossed it away from him, where it landed near the trunk of the Christmas tree. The sparks caught on the branches and it erupted into flames, the fire shorting out the lights. As the electricity went down, plunging houses and businesses into darkness, the star exploded. Jagged pieces rained down and fizzled into the snow, some of them crashing into cars. One pierced through the side of a van, the sparks igniting the fuel tank and it was engulfed by an inferno. This caused a chain reaction with the rest of the cars parked on that side of the street as the flames reached them.

"So that's how it caught on fire," exclaimed Milo after a moment of awed gazing. "I always wondered."

"Now that is spectacular," declared Dakota. "This is way more exciting."

The crowd was getting as far away from the tree as they could, and a portion of them strayed closer to town hall, so that trio were able to hear what they were saying.

"The Murphys are here, aren't they?"

"I thought Martin started staying home after the raccoon-woodpecker debacle?"

"It's just their boy, Milo. Cursed like the rest of the Murphy males."

"Why do they have ruin everything?"

Dakota bristled. "I oughta-"

"It's okay!" said Milo quickly, the smile he put on not reaching his eyes. "Really. Murphy's Law isn't just hard on me, it's hard on anyone I come across."

"That doesn't give them the right to speak about you in such a way," said Cavendish firmly. "Really. A curse. How ridiculous."

"You don't think I'm cursed?" asked Milo.

"Of course not," said Cavendish in surprise, "if it wasn't for you we never would have been able to defeat the Pistashions."

"Yeah, we'd have been sunk without you," agreed Dakota. "You can adjust to any situation, no matter what Murphy's Law throws at you. I'd like to see anyone else try to deal with half of what you go through."

"Aw, thanks," said Milo gratefully, smiling sincerely now. "I don't think its a curse. I couldn't imagine living an average life. It must be so boring."

"I think we've lingered long enough," spoke Cavendish glancing at his watch. "We better get going." He paused and glanced over at the edge of the roof. "Now just how are we going to get down?"

"I've got a rope ladder!" offered Milo.

"Of course you do."

"Where do you want us to drop you off, kid?" asked Dakota as they started down the ladder. "Want to give the tree lighting ceremony another shot?"

"Nah, I'm good. It's actually not as amazing as I thought it was. Probably because all I could remember was the fire and that was pretty impressive. Thanks for bringing me here. This was really cool!"

"Yeah, it was. See Cavendish? You worry too much. Everything went-"

The rope ladder snapped, sending the three careening into a snowy bank below. Sitting up, Cavendish removed his smudged glasses and sent Dakota a dry look. "I suppose you were about to say smoothly."

"Rope ladders are usually sturdier than that," mused Milo. "Guess I'll have to get another one. Maybe Mom and Dad will get me one for Christmas."

Dakota turned to look at Cavendish with a wide smile. "I ever tell you I really like this kid?"

"Several times. And I concur."


End file.
